The Abominations of Modern Society eBook

The Church of God has not seemed willing to allow
the world to have all the advantage of these games
of chance. A church fair opens, and towards the
close it is found that some of the more valuable articles
are unsalable. Forthwith the conductors of the
enterprise conclude that they will raffle for
some of the valuable articles, and, under pretence
of anxiety to make their minister a present, or please
some popular member of the church, fascinating persons
are despatched through the room, pencil in hand, to
“solicit” shares; or perhaps each draws
for his own advantage, and scores of people go home
with their trophies, thinking that all is right, for
Christian ladies did the embroidery, and Christian
men did the raffling, and the proceeds went towards
a new communion set. But you may depend on it
that, as far as morality is concerned, you might as
well have won by the crack of the billiard-ball or
the turn of the dice-box.

Some good people cannot stand this raffling, and so,
at fairs, they go to “voting,” sometimes
for editors, and sometimes for ministers, at a dollar
a vote. Now the Methodist minister is ahead; now
the Presbyterian leads, and now the Baptist.
But, just at the last moment, when one of the ministers
of the more popular sect seems sure to get the prize,
the members from some obscure denomination, that do
not deserve the prize, come in, and by a large contribution
carry off for their minister the silver tea-set.

Do you wonder that churches built, lighted, or upholstered
by such processes as that come to great financial
and spiritual decrepitude? The devil says:
“I helped build that house of worship,
and I have as much right there as you have;”
and for once the devil is right.

We do not read that they had a lottery for building
the church at Corinth or Antioch, or for getting up
a gold-headed cane or for an embroidered surplice
for Saint Paul. All this I style ecclesiastical
gambling. More than one man who is destroyed can
say that his first step on the wrong road was when
he won something at a church fair.

The gambling spirit has not stopped for any indecency.
There lately transpired, in Maryland, a lottery in
which people drew for lots in a burying-ground!
The modern habit of betting about everything is productive
of immense mischief. The most healthful and innocent
amusements of yachting and base-ball playing have been
the occasion of putting up excited and extravagant
wagers. That which to many has been advantageous
to body and mind has been to others the means of financial
and moral loss. The custom is pernicious in the
extreme where scores of men in respectable life give
themselves up to betting, now on this boat now on
that—­now on the Atlantics and now on the
Athletics.

Betting, that once was chiefly the accompaniment of
the race-course, is fast becoming a national habit,
and in some circles any opinion advanced on finance
or politics is accosted with the interrogatory—­“How
much will you bet on that, sir?”